Part 107 (1/2)

[Footnote 1: Among the writers on India in the 14th century, A.D. 1323, was the Dominican missionary JOURDAIN CATALANI, or ”Jordan de Severac,”

regarding whose t.i.tle of _Bishop of Colombo_, ”Episcopus Columbensis,”

it is somewhat uncertain whether his see was in Ceylon, or at Coulam (Quilon), on the Malabar coast. The probability in favour of the latter is sustained by the fact of the very limited accounts of the island contained in his _Mirabilia_, a work in which he has recorded his observations on the Dekkan. _Cinnamon he describes as a production of Malabar_, and Ceylon he extols only for its gems, pre-eminent among which were two rubies, one worn by the king, suspended round his neck, and the other which, when grasped in the hand could not be covered, by the fingers, ”Non credo mundum habere universum tales duo lapides, nec tanti pretii.” The MS. of Fra. JORDa.n.u.s'S _Mirabilia_ has been printed in the _Recueil des Voyages_ of the Societe Geogr. of Paris, vol. i. p.

49. GIOVANNI DE MARIGNOLA, a Florentine and Legate of Clement VI., landed in Ceylon in 1349 A.D., at which time the legitimate king was driven away and the supreme power left in the hands of a eunuch whom he calls _Coja-Joan_, ”pessimus Saracenus.” The legate's attention was chiefly directed to ”the mountain opposite Paradise.”--DOBNER, _Monum.

Histor. Boemiae._ Pragae, 1764-85.

JOHN OF HESSE in his ”Itinerary” (in which occurs the date A.D. 1398) says, ”Adsunt et in quadam insula nomine Taprobanes viri crudelissimi et moribus asperi: permagnas habent aures, et illas plurimis gemmis ornare dic.u.n.tur. _Hi carnes humanas pro summis deliciis comedunt_.”--JOHANNIS DE HESSE, Presbyteri _Itinerarium_, etc.]

[Footnote 2: _De Varietate Fortunae_, Basil, 1538. An admirable translation of the narrative of DI CONTI has recently been made by R.H.

Major, Esq., for the Hakluyt Society. London, 1857.]

Di Conti is, I believe, the first European who speaks of cinnamon as a production of Ceylon. ”It is a tree,” he says, ”which grows there in abundance, and which very much resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow upwards, but spread horizontally; the leaves are like those of the laurel, but somewhat larger; the bark of the branches is thinnest and best, that of the trunk thick and inferior in flavour. The fruit resembles the berries of the laurel; the Indians extract from it an odoriferous oil, and the wood, after the bark has been stripped from it, is used by them for fuel.”[1]

[Footnote 1: POGGIO makes Nicolo di Conti say that the island contains a lake, in the middle of which is a city three miles in circ.u.mference; but this is evidently an amplification of his own, borrowed from the pa.s.sage in which Pliny (whom Poggio elsewhere quotes) alludes to the fabulous Lake Megisba.--PLINY, lib. vi. ch. xxiv.]

The narrative of Di Conti, as it is printed by Ramusio, from a Portuguese version, contains a pa.s.sage not found in Poggio, in which it is alleged that a river of Ceylon, called Arotan, has a fish somewhat like the torpedo, but whose touch, instead of electrifying, produces a fever so long as it is held in the hand, relief being instantaneous on letting it go.[1]

[Footnote 1: DI CONTI in _Ramusio_, vol. i. p. 344. There are two other Italian travellers of this century who touched at Ceylon; one a ”GENTLEMAN OF FLORENCE,” whose story is printed by Ramusio (but without the author's name), who accompanied Vasco de Gama, in the year 1479, in his voyage to Calicut, and who speaks of the trees ”che fanno la canella in molta perfettione.”--Vol. i. p. 120. The other is GIROLAMO DI SANTO STEFANO, a Genoese, who, in pursuit of commerce, made a journey to India which he described on his return in 1499, in a letter inserted by Ramusio in his collection of voyages. He stayed but one day in the island, and saw only its coco-nuts, jewels, and cinnamon.--Vol. i. p.

345.]

The sixteenth century was prolific in navigators, the accounts of whose adventures served to diffuse throughout Europe a general knowledge of Ceylon, at least as it was known superficially before the arrival of the Portuguese. Ludovico Barthema, or Varthema, a Bolognese[1], remained at a port on the west coast[2] for some days in 1506. The four kings of the island being busily engaged in civil war[3], he found it difficult to land, but he learned that permission to search for jewels at the foot of Adam's Peak might be obtained by the payment of five ducats, and restoring as a royalty all gems over ten carats. Fruit was delicious and abundant, especially artichokes and oranges[4], but rice was so insufficiently cultivated that the sovereigns of the island were dependent for their supplies upon the King of Narsingha, on the continent of India.[5] This statement of Barthema is without qualification; there can be little doubt that it applied chiefly to the southern parts of the island, and that the north was still able to produce food sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants.

[Footnote 1: _Itinerario de_ LUDOVICO DE VARTHEMA, _Bolognese, no lo Egypto, ne la Suria, ne la Arabia Deserta e Felice, ne la Persia, ne la India, e ne la, aethiopia--la fede el vivere e costume de tutte le prefatte provincie._ Roma. 1511, A.D.]

[Footnote 2: Probably Colombo.]

[Footnote 3: These conflicts and the actors in them are described in the _Rajavali_, p. 274.]

[Footnote 4: ”Carzofoli megliori che li nostri, melangoli dolci, li megiiori credo, che siano nel mondo.”--_Varthema_, pt. xxvii.]

[Footnote 5: ”In questo paese non nasce riso; ma ne li viene da terra ferma. Li re de quella isola sono tributarii d'il re de Narsinga per repetto del riso.”--_Itin_., pt. xxvii. See also BARBOSA, in _Ramusio_, vol. i p. 312.]

Barthema found the supply of cinnamon small, and so precarious that the cutting took place but once in three years. The Singhalese were at that time ignorant of the use of gunpowder[1], and their arms were swords and lance-heads mounted on shafts of bamboo; ”with these they fought, but their battles were not b.l.o.o.d.y.” The Moors were in possession of the trade, and the king sent a message to Varthema and his companions, expressive of his desire to purchase their commodities; but in consequence of a hint that payment would be regulated by the royal discretion, the Italians weighed anchor at nightfall and bade a sudden adieu to Ceylon.